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So excited! I finally got to run PRIVATEERS & GENTLEMEN, the crunchy old Age of Sail RPG.

Congratulations are due to Lt. Sir Alexander Langstrom, master and commander of the sloop-of-war HMS Dolphin, 18 guns, in the capture of the French privateer le Moineau, 10 guns. Lt. Langstrom recovered the collier Two Brothers, which le Moineau had captured, but Two Brothers was subsequently lost to fire due to an accident in the coal stores.

The capture of le Moineau occurred as follows. The Dolphin was hove-to overnight in heavy fog when Lt. Langstrom distinctly heard a pair of pistol shots on the wind from not far away. There being no vessels nor land known nearby, Lt. Langstrom sent his first lieutenant, Lt. Aloysius Appleyard, with six Marines and 34 men in the ship’s cutter to investigate. After a brief search Lt. Appleyard discovered an unknown lugger hove-to in the fog. Closing to investigate further, Lt. Appleyard found it to be le Moineau, a privateer commanded by Capt. Claude Chapelle.

The crew of le Moineau were distracted by celebrations on the larbord deck, where they bid farewell to another vessel, and so Lt. Appleyard purposed to board and capture her. He led Marines and men into the bow of le Moineau by stealth, and more than half were aboard before Capt. Chapelle chanced to turn and see them there.

Capt. Chapelle cried out the alarm and Lt. Appleyard shot him with a pistol. As Capt. Chapelle fell, Lt. Appleyard ordered a man in the cutter to send a signal-flare to warn the Dolphin of action.

The crew of le Moineau, already armed from having captured a British vessel that day, turned and attacked the boarders. But the French could not bring their greater numbers to bear in the narrow bows of the ship, and the firmer training and discipline of the Royal Navy soon told. After a short, sharp melee le Moineau struck its colors.

Of the cutter of HMS Dolphin, 4 Marines and 4 seamen killed and 8 seamen wounded.

(GAME NOTES: Appleyard was the only player character in the cutter, so for the boarding action I had the other two players take temporary characters, a sailor and a Marine. Using the boarding rules from Heart of Oak, they secured “lodgement” in the first turn of battle and expanded it in the next three turns, capturing the foredeck, the middle, then the aft. They had only three “crew factors” of sailors and one of Marines; but those counted as nine of sailors and six of Marines for a boarding action because of their good training. The French had 100 men aboard for 10 crew factors, but could only bring 4 crew factors to battle in the narrow bows of the ship. And those counted as only 4 “boarding factors” because they were poorly trained and ill-disciplined.

(In the battle the British lost 2 crew factors—half their men!—and so did the French; but the superior discipline and zeal of the British sailors carried the night. On the fourth turn they captured the last part of the deck and the French ship surrendered. I guesstimated the numbers of dead and wounded from the lost crew factors, weighting in the victor’s favor.

(In each turn of the battle, each character fought a round of combat with a random enemy. The temporary Marine, Pvt. Burgen, wounded one foe and was uninjured. The temporary sailor, Able Seaman Barry, took a savage wound to his right arm from a boarding-pike. He survived but the arm had to be amputated. Lt. Appleyard killed the French captain with a pistol shot (Appleyard carried a pair of unusual double-barrel pistols), wounded the French first lieutenant with another, and crippled a sailor with a sword-thrust through the leg.)

At dawn, Lt. Langstrom sent Lt. Appleyard with a prize crew to deliver le Moineau to Portsmoth. About noon, the Dolphin overtook the collier Two Brothers, which a prize crew from le Moineau was attempting to bring to France. The unarmed collier immediately struck its colors.

Lt. Langstrom’s second lieutenant, Lt. Donald Strickland, led a crew to take possession. Aboard Two Brothers they discovered the captured British crew of 20 almost all dead below decks. The only survivor was the bosun, who had two pistol wounds and would soon perish of them. The dead all lay in their hammocks, apparently succumbed to poisoning, perhaps from fumes from coal improperly stored.

The Dolphin’s surgeon came aboard and recommended quarantine. Lt. Strickland disarmed the French prize crew and took the parole of their officer, Lt. Dumas, then had hatches opened to ventilate the hold and hoisted the cutter aboard for the journey to Portsmouth.

As the day wore on the sailors saw a glowing spark of fire in the hold. Lt. Strickland ordered water pumped in, which caused a great gout of smoke and steam but which preserved the vessel until it reached the harbor. At Portsmouth the British and French disembarked on the cutter for a quarantine ship. Within hours the Two Brothers erupted in a coal fire and was destroyed.

The Admiralty took possession of le Moineau and began proceedings to condemn it as a prize, and Lt. Strickland and Lt. Appleyard returned to HMS Dolphin for further service under Lt. Langstrom.﻿

GM looking for 3-5 players to play a game of Better Angels this Friday. 3-6PST(6-9EST)A casual one-shot to learn the system, but experienced players are welcome too. To be played over Hangouts and/or Roll20 depending on player preference. Let me know if anyone is interested. ﻿

One of our own suffered a Critical Hit recently, and this bundle is our way of trying to give him a hand up.

Jonathon Thompson, owner of Battlefield Press, lost his girlfirend a few days ago to an unexpected heart attack. Not only is this a devastating blow, but it is also an extremely expensive one. We're going to help soak up some of that damage.

Almost $400 dollars worth of fantastic gaming products for a mere $30! From Shaintar and Suzerain to the world of the Tarnished Souk, and Tunse'al there are realms and adventures and add ons guaranteed to kick your game up a notch.﻿

+Gareth Skarka: I think you'd have liked how I dealt with GNS in "Dragons in the Stacks": brief description, followed by a statement by the authors that, while some may place great value on RPG theory, we've exhausted our interest in the topic just from providing a brief description.﻿

'General Frederick had cards printed up with the unit's insignia on them and the words "Das dicke Ende kommt noch!" or "The worst is yet to come" printed in red ink down the right side, which the Force would leave on the bodies of dead Germans as a form of psychological warfare. This was so effective that Sergeant Victor Kaisner reported hearing a German soldier whisper "Schwarzer Teufel" ("Black Devil") as the German's throat was being sliced on the beachhead.' (Wikipedia)